If you have a website, you’ve probably seen the term sitemap thrown around. A sitemap is a list of the pages on your site that you want search engines to know about. It helps them find and index your pages. It does not make them rank, which is the part people most often get backwards.

Sitemap 101: Everything You Need to Know - YouTube thumbnail

What Is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is a file that lists the canonical URLs and other files you want search engines to know about. It is like handing Google a table of contents for your site. Search engines can also discover pages through internal links and external links, so a sitemap supports discovery rather than replacing good site navigation.

Why Do You Need a Sitemap?

The primary function of a sitemap is to help search engines discover and crawl important URLs efficiently. It does not guarantee that any URL will be crawled, indexed, or ranked. A sitemap can help with:

  • URL Discovery: It tells search engines about important new and updated URLs.
  • Crawl Coverage: It can help on large, new, or complex sites where some important pages have few links pointing to them.
  • Change Signals: An accurate <lastmod> value can help Google schedule recrawls. Do not update the date unless the page changed meaningfully.

How to Create and Submit a Sitemap

Example of an XML sitemap

Automatic Generation

Most hosted content management systems generate a sitemap automatically, but the URL varies. WordPress core uses /wp-sitemap.xml; SEO plugins often use /sitemap_index.xml; Squarespace commonly uses /sitemap.xml. Check your platform or SEO plugin rather than guessing the path.

Submitting Your Sitemap to Search Engines

You can make a sitemap available through Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, or a Sitemap: line in robots.txt. Submission helps with discovery and reporting, but it does not guarantee crawling or indexing.

  1. Locate your sitemap URL: Open it in a browser and confirm that it loads successfully.
  2. Submit to Google Search Console: Login to your account, select ‘Sitemaps’ from the menu, and add your sitemap URL.
  3. Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools: Similarly, use your Bing dashboard to submit the sitemap.

After submission, use the sitemap report to see when Google fetched the file and whether it found processing errors. Inclusion in a valid sitemap is still only a hint.

Managing Sitemap Updates

You do not need to resubmit the same sitemap every time you publish. A properly configured CMS updates it automatically, and search engines revisit the known sitemap. Check that new pages use the preferred canonical URL and are not accidentally set to noindex.

Do Small Sites Need a Sitemap?

Google says a small site of roughly 500 pages or fewer may not need a sitemap when every important page is well linked. A sitemap is still easy to maintain on most platforms and can be especially useful for new sites, large sites, or sites with many images, videos, or news pages. It does not create a ranking boost or promise faster indexing.

Set Up Your Sitemap Today

Checking and submitting your sitemap is a useful technical setup step. It helps search engines discover your preferred URLs and gives you a place to monitor processing errors, while content quality and other search signals determine whether pages are indexed and ranked.

For a step-by-step walkthrough, check out our guide on setting up your XML sitemap. And if you want to go deeper on SEO fundamentals, see our SEO Mastery course for RightBlogger subscribers.